Palazzo Drago Ajroldi, Noble palace in Via Vittorio Emanuele, Palermo, Italy.

Palazzo Drago Ajroldi stands at the corner of Via Vittorio Emanuele and Vicolo San Giuseppe d'Arimatea. The four-storey facade has a central portal topped by a broken-arch pediment with a winged-dragon crest, two windows per wing on the mezzanine, and five balconies on each of the upper floors. Inside, a ground-floor courtyard with a fountain leads to a piano nobile enfilade, including the Sala dei Coralli with Pompeian decoration and the Sala Neoclassica.

The palace began as an Arab guard post along the original route of the Cassaro, today's Via Vittorio Emanuele. In 1714, under Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy, it passed to Casimiro Drago, lieutenant president of the master justiciar and marquis by concession of Emperor Charles VI in 1724. His son Biagio II commissioned the frescoes, including Olivio Sozzi's signed and dated 'Judgment of Paris' of 1745. In the 19th century it went to the Ajroldi family, marquises of Santa Colomba, and in 1872 Giovan Battista Filippo Basile carried out refinement works.

The palace is named after the Ajroldi family, Lombard in origin, who acquired it in the 19th century and took the title of Marquises of Santa Colomba. In the Coral Room, among Pompeian-style female figures, is a portrait of actress Eleonora Duse, a guest of the palace; a display case holds her personal objects.

The interior is open to visitors and displays several decorated rooms across different sections. Take your time observing the transitions between styles, as they reveal how renovations were carried out across different periods of work.

The building displays trompe-l'oeil decorations in reception rooms, where flat surfaces are rendered to appear three-dimensional. These visual tricks were a popular technique of the era and they create surprising depth as you move through the space.